Blog byJoey Hutcherson, TPM, PMP, CIPP/GDeputy
Director, Office of Privacy and Open Government

Department of
Justice (DOJ) kicked off Sunshine Week with a celebration of FOIA Professionals
on March 16, 2015. DOJ presented three awards to Department of Commerce (DOC)
employees. One DOC FOIA Professional was recognized with a Lifetime Service
Award and two DOC FOIA Professionals were recognized with an Outstanding
Customer Service Award. The Lifetime
Service Award was presented to Ms. Brenda Dolan. The Outstanding Customer Service
Awards were presented to Ms. Roberta “Bobbie” Parsons and Ms. Harriette Boyd.

Ms. Dolan was recognized for 22 years
of distinguished civil service as a FOIA professional in the DOC. As the Departmental FOIA Officer, Ms. Dolan’s
contributions to ensuring efficient FOIA administration are exceptional and
remarkable. She ushered the Department’s FOIA processing capabilities into the
21st century by transitioning it from manual paper-based FOIA processing to a
FOIAonline. It provides an end-to-end workflow, electronic records, and
automated reports. She leads Departmental response to numerous voluminous
FOIAs, including some which produced over 30,000 responsive documents. Ms.
Dolan has exceptional professional competence and is cornerstone in the
Department’s administration of FOIA.

Ms. Roberta Parsons who is responsible for processing DOC
Office of Secretary (OS) FOIA requests which are for the immediate OS. Ms. Parsons’ was recognized for outstanding
customer service and her attention to detail which has enhanced the OS response
to the requester community through clear explanation of the OS FOIA process and
by improving the quality of the responsive documents. Ms. Parsons’ ability to assist requesters
with modification of requests enables DOC personnel to locate responsive
documents with a reasonable amount of effort, which often reduces associated
fees. Ms. Parsons has enhanced the OS
capabilities in responding to FOIA request significantly improving the
requester experience.

Ms. Harriette Boyd
provides outstanding customer services in the processing of requests received
from the public. Her effective
assigning/tasking and initiation of requests across the Department has reduced the timeframe required to respond
effectively to each requestor. Her
tenacity in managing, coordinating, and collaborating internally and externally
enables the DOC personnel to locate the documents required to respond
appropriately to requests. Her
outstanding ability to narrow the scope of the request has often resulted in
the reduction the fees to the requester. Ms. Boyd is the critical element in
reducing the response time, and improving overall effectiveness in FOIA
processing.

On January 18, 2011, in Executive Order 13563, the President
directed each agency to review their "existing significant regulations,
and consider how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be
outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify,
streamline, expand, or repeal them in accordance with what has been
learned."

In response to this directive, Commerce created and released
a preliminary plan for review of its regulations on May 26, 2011. Commerce
welcomed the public's comments and feedback on this preliminary plan through
July 25, 2011. Commerce published the final version of its regulatory review
plan on August 22, 2011, which incorporated responses to public comments and
new information about recent accomplishments. Commerce in promoting
transparency continues to publish routine status and updates. Commerce has
updated the Retrospective Plan Progress Report Table based on progress review
of the plan, new information and new developments. Today March 20, 2015, we are
publishing our latest updates in the EO 13563, EO 13610 and the EO 13659
progress report.

Open Government Directive Benchmarks

The White House's Open Government Directive requires Cabinet-level agencies, such as the Department of Commerce, to pass certain milestones as part of our efforts to be more open and transparent. The timeline below details the specific benchmarks we're moving toward, and shows the Department's progress in achieving them.

45 days—January 22, 2010

Completed: Identify and publish online, in an open format, at least three high-value data sets (Date Completed: 1/22/2010)

3 of 3Complete

60 days—February 6, 2010

Completed: Launch the Commerce Open Government Website at www.commerce.gov/open, to provide ways for the public to find information and provide feedback on the data sets, our FOIA process, and the Commerce Open Government Plan (Date Completed: 2/5/2010)